In accounting, the trial balance is a worksheet listing the balance on a certain date, of each ledger account in two columns, namely debit and credit. Under the double-entry system, for each transaction the total of any debits must equal the total of any credits. Accordingly, in a trial balance, the total of the debit side should always be equal to the total of the credit side. The trial balance thus serves as a tool to detect errors, which can result when the debit and credit totals are not equal.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting. It includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions, and in the preparation of financial statements. Generally speaking, GAAP is based on principles, such as Principle of Regularity, Principle of Sincerity, Principle of the Permanence of Methods, Principle of Non-Compensation, Principle of Prudence, Principle of Continuity, Principle of Periodicity, etc.
Adjusting trial balances to comply with GAAP or other accounting principles is a time-consuming, error prone, research intensive, and industry specific process. The complexity arises in the existence of a very large number of accounts within a company's General Ledger and the wide variety of rules that may be applied to each account in order to make adjustments that comply with GAAP and other accounting principles. Further, rules may change based on new regulations and/or may be subject to interpretation depending on the industry. If an accountant is not familiar with the industry or the nature of the account to which an adjustment is being made, the accountant may need to conduct extensive research in order to determine, substantiate, and record the adjustments correctly.